Frederick Graff feels like one of those guys who gets so little credit for what he did, you wind up feeling pretty badly for him.
But the fact is, if not for him, over three dozen cities in the US wouldn’t have adequate water systems. So good on Frederick! Hoist your favorite beverage in his honor! (Though, in this case, it really should be water.)
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New Jersey’s Provincial Congress first convened in May, but by now they’d gotten a bunch of stuff done. They’d already made arrangements to remove the Royal Governor from power, and resolved to do it like gentlemen (it didn’t work out that way, unfortunately).
At this point the colony had only one delegate to the Continental Congress: a couple had resigned, one never showed up, and that left exactly one man holding down the fort. So the Provincial Congress appointed new delegates, with a specific mission.
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New Jersey has been pretty quiet since the Lexington and Concord fighting took place. But no more: today they came back…with a vengeance!
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When it comes to tea-related protests, the Boston Tea Party seems to get all the press, even though there was also wanton destruction of tea in Charleston, and then there was the Edenton Tea Party.
But Boston was the first, and abusing tea in one way or another became a popular way to demonstrate your patriotism. (Some modern-day Brits would argue that we never quite stopped abusing tea.)
Today we talk about an effort to actually prohibit the import or consumption of tea in the Colonies. It worked about as well as you’d expect.
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(Forgive us the jokey headline–sometimes it’s late at night when we post this stuff and we get punchy.)
Over the course of a single year—and beginning with this day in 1775—John Cox experienced what any reasonable person would call a “meteoric rise” in his personal and professional fortunes. He started out adjudicating British laws in the Colonies, but moved quickly into assisting with the Colonial resistance effort and subsequently to assisting with the actual war. He did this both materially (as a Quartermaster) and passively (allowing his land to be used by Patriot troops).
He died in 1793, at the age of 60, and even this week he’s probably still more productive than most of us.
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Hugh Mercer is one of those people who was terribly important to the cause of Liberty during the American Revolution, yet his story goes untold largely because he died early in the effort.
But if Mercer hadn’t come to America because he was on the losing side of a battle in Scotland, he wouldn’t have become a doctor in Pennsylvania.
And he wouldn’t have joined up in the French and Indian War.
And if he hadn’t been wounded, then he wouldn’t have been rescued, transferred and promoted to Major.
And if he hadn’t been transferred, he wouldn’t have met George Washington.
And Washington wouldn’t have gotten the idea to invade Trenton, New Jersey at Christmastime 1776.
And Mercer wouldn’t have been killed the following month. Which is bad, but…
If Mercer hasn’t sacrificed himself so publicly, Washington’s troops wouldn’t have been inspired to re-enlist and continue the fight.
Also, the county surrounding Trenton, New Jersey would have a name other than “Mercer County,” so there’s that.
